SDA Bocconi School of Management

SDA Boconni Review

Reflecting the proximity of Italy’s industrial region, 28% of the 100 students who take the 12-month MBA come from industry, and 39% have engineering degrees. The school is ranked fourth in Europe by the Financial Times for salary increase in 2018 after three years, and fifth by Forbes for ROI among non-U.S. schools. In the last cohort, 79% changed either location, industry, or function, with 30% taking jobs in technology or e-business, just above the 28% who went into consulting. Amazon and Microsoft were the two biggest recruiters.

It’s not all heavy industry and tech, though. One of the Bocconi MBA’s five “concentrations” is in luxury business management, run in partnership with Gucci, Valentino, and LVMH. And just to underline the variety of businesses nearby, a recent field trip took in a visit to the Maserati car factory, while Italian insurance giant Generali organized a three-day hackathon with Bocconi MBAs to dream up innovative ideas for the insurance industry.

Of the MBA class, 84% take internships with local and international businesses, and the rest undertake an entrepreneurial project. Partners for international exchanges include top-flight schools such as Duke Fuqua, CEIBS, and HEC Paris. And it if all gets to be too much, there are plenty of extracurricular activities: the school organizes both a regatta in summer and a snowsports competition in winter.